Rotor & Wing Magazine :: Military :: Attack

Armed Aerial Scout: Will they or won’t they? “What do we do with the Scout? Do we buy new or do we do a SLEP [service life extension program with the Kiowa Warrior]?” asked Maj. Gen. William “Tim” Crosby, PEO Army Aviation, during his address at the annual Quad-A convention, held this year in Fort Worth, Texas. Addressing industry delegates in the audience, he continued...

What do the chief executives of a longstanding U.S. helicopter manufacturer, a London-based emergency medical services, offshore and SAR operator, and a hoist and winch supplier from New Jersey have in common? All of them sat down with Rotor & Wing during Heli-Expo in March for exclusive interviews that are part of our ongoing series featuring CEOs from the top companies around the helicopter industry...

The opening late afternoon session of the U.S. Army Aviation Association of America (Quad-A) annual convention usually has a vibrant expectation to it. An eclectic mix of fighting men and women all with aviation in common, some shouldering old buddies with the “where the heck did you go” conversation; beside them old veterans—some recently retired and working in industry, others...

A full scale mock-up of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C, the unmanned platform that is to succeed the MQ-8B, was on show earlier this month at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition at National Harbor, Md. The MQ-8C is built around the Bell 407 helicopter while the MQ-8B was originally modeled around the Schweizer 333 platform (UTC absorbed Schweizer in August 2004 and the company is now a...

With the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) currently focused on how it is going to manage the capability sustainment program of its Apache Longbow attack helicopters, Lockheed Martin is keen to add its VUIT video networking technology to the potential package of improvements. U.S. Army Apache D models have operated in Iraq and Afghanistan with VUIT, which allows Apaches to receive video feeds from...

Quad-A, Fort Worth, Texas—The twin-engine AW169 AAS was uncovered (literally) on Thursday as AgustaWestland’s entry into the competition for the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout requirement. The mock-up, without rotor blade, was declared by Scott Rettig, CEO AgustaWestland North America, as a helicopter that would “set a new standard” in reconnaissance helicopters. Photos...

Quad-A, Fort Worth, Texas—John Garrison, Bell Helicopter’s president and CEO, uncovered the Bell V-280 Valor 3rd generation tiltrotor at the start of the annual U.S. Army Aviation symposium, Quad-A. The V-280 is Bell’s offering for the Department of Defense’s Joint Multi-Role/Future Vertical Lift helicopter project, which could result in the production of more than 4,000 aircraft...

The U.S. Navy has issued a $27.9-million modification to a Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training contract covering long lead materials and support for nine mission avionics systems and common...

Eurocopter and Turbomeca have reached industrial cooperation agreements with Polish aviation maintenance company Wojskowe Zaklady Lotnicze No. 1 (WZL-1) to open two full assembly lines in Poland. The assembly...

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died on Monday at age 87, may be remembered militarily for leading the United Kingdom in the campaign to retake the Falkland Islands in 1982, which had been invaded by Argentina’s forces in a surprise attack. She served three terms in office and her defining moment could be said to have been during the Falklands War. Her close relationship with...

The United Kingdom’s 24 upgraded Royal Air Force (RAF) Pumas are to receive new self-sealing fuel tanks, thanks to a contract between Eurocopter, the OEM delivering the upgraded helicopters, and GKN Aerospace. It has already delivered some of the new tanks...

At the end of March, Flight Lt. Christopher Gordon, a Royal Air Force (RAF) Chinook pilot, received the Distinguished Flying Cross for rescuing British and Afghan troops during a major contact with the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Flying one of two Chinooks, escorted by a Boeing Apache attack helicopter, his mission had required the insertion of the troops into a known insurgent...

MD Helicopters CEO Lynn Tilton through the cockpit of the MD540F. At HAI Lynn Tilton, owner of MD Helicopters, said she was scarred, but stronger for it, in her efforts to turn MD Helicopters around since buying the company in 2005. “I can feel the Howard Hughes legacy on my shoulders.” The latest MD product, the MD540F, is on many military wish lists, she said. “We have...

Roberto Garavaglia and new AgustaWestland CEO Daniele Romiti during the company’s Heli-Expo press conference. The expectation of a battle royale between the press and the management team from AgustaWestland at the company’s press conference on the eve of the opening of Heli-Expo in Las Vegas over the alleged Indian AW101 scandal in India did not materialize. Instead, newly...

During an exclusive interview with Rotor & Wing on March 6, Bell Helicopter President & CEO John Garrison detailed the manufacturer’s plans for the future of tiltrotor technology. Bell has submitted its own proposal for the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate’s (AATD) Joint Multi Role (JMR) technology demonstrator (TD). All proposals had to be received in early March. Bell...

With the threat of sequestration in the air, a question mark against the numbers of military that would attend, and a gloomy presence by an industry reluctant to take part in a gathering that has seemingly got progressively smaller both in exhibitors and visitors, the annual winter AUSA ILW Aviation went ahead in January 2013 at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. But speakers there...

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